He is undoubtedly a beloved comedic actor who has made millions laugh with roles in the likes of 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'The World's End' - but Simon Pegg had had to deal with his fair share of demons, too.
The English actor got very deep and personal in a new interview for BBC Radio's 'Desert Island Discs', when he revealed that he had struggled with mental health issues since he was a teenager, but that they reared their head once again when he was working on the JJ Abrams-directed 'Mission Impossible 3' in 2006.
Pegg said that he had turned to alcohol to cope with the issues and hid his alcoholism on many film sets in the 2000s. "You become very sneaky when you have something like that [alcoholism] in your life," he told host Lauren Laverne.
He added: "You learn how to do it without anyone noticing because it takes over. It wants to sustain itself and it will do everything it can to not be stopped. But eventually it just gets to a point when it can’t be hidden, and that’s when, thankfully, I was able to pull out of the dive."
He said that the birth of his daughter in 2009 finally spurred him on to seek help.
Pegg has played the role of IMF technician Benji Dunn in three 'Mission Impossible' films, and also spoke about his "simple and amiable" friendship with Tom Cruise.
"It’s always been a very easy relationship," he said. "I think you realise, when you meet the person rather than the thicket of mythology that’s built up around them, it’s a different experience. I mean, he loves [the fame] and he really relishes it, it’s all he knows. It energises him and spurs him on."
Listen to the full interview here.
